TV Review: Squid Game (Season 2)
Let The New Games Begin
INTRODUCTION
This is a quick review of the newly released season of the TV show Squid Game. To better keep up to date with my thoughts on movies as well, follow me on Letterboxd.
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PLOT
Via Google: Hundreds of cash-strapped contestants accept an invitation to compete in children's games for a tempting prize - but the stakes are deadly.
REVIEW
If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I’m not the biggest fan of television series. Besides not having the time to binge endless shows, I often find myself frustrated or let down as a series drags on. That said, this is that special time early in the year when my new movie-watching queue is relatively small. It’s the perfect opportunity to catch up on TV shows or miniseries that generated enough buzz to pique my curiosity.
2021’s Squid Game was one of the rare occasions when I gave in to the hype and watched a popular TV series. My wife happened to be watching the first episode, and as soon as the credits rolled, I was hooked. In my opinion, the first season was an S-tier masterpiece. So, you can imagine my excitement when the long-awaited announcement for a second season came - quickly followed by news of a third and final season just a couple of months later.
I finally found the time to binge the second season, and... I have thoughts.
Let’s start with the positives. Is it worth watching for fans of the first season? Yes, if only because we’re already invested, and with the series capped at three seasons, we might as well see it through. Does the show maintain its spectacular costumes, production design, and score? Absolutely. Does it deliver enough cliffhangers and twists to keep you binging, eager to see what happens next? Without a doubt. But does it hold on to the incredible writing that made the first season so compelling? Well… that’s where my biggest gripes lie.
One of the challenges with the “deadly games” subgenre is avoiding repetition in a sequel. Even with new games and characters, it’s difficult not to rehash the same plot points and story beats as before. Unfortunately, this season falls into that trap. Sandwiched between a great opening and an equally strong finale, the middle of the season feels like a retread of familiar territory.
The new games, while intriguing, lack the creativity and tension of the original, making some sequences feel unnecessarily drawn out. The new characters show promise but stretch believability with their conveniently paired connections - the mother and son, the fallen YouTuber and his pregnant girlfriend, the rapper and his manager, the protagonist and his best friend. It starts to feel less like a coincidence and more like forced storytelling.
Then there’s the voting system, which is a significant sticking point for me. One of the first season’s most brilliant moments was the players collectively voting themselves out of the game after the first round. This made their eventual return feel justified; they were desperate and fully aware of what they were getting into. In this season, however, the players repeatedly vote to stay in the game, which makes many of them come across as either recklessly foolish or incapable of valuing their own lives.
When the finale arrives and some players take up arms against the guards, their earlier decisions to keep the game going feel nonsensical in hindsight. It’s hard not to question their motivations, which undercuts the emotional weight of the climax.
The second season of Squid Game falls into the trap of repeating familiar beats from the first, offers less compelling and believable character decisions, and occasionally feels like things happen just for the sake of moving the plot along. Despite these flaws, it still manages to keep you hooked, eager to see what happens next. After all, we’re being promised the ultimate takedown of this entire operation, and I’m invested in seeing how that plays out.
Overall, following an absolute masterclass in storytelling from the first season, the second installment in this trilogy is just good enough to keep me onboard for the finale. My initial grade for Squid Game season two is a okay enough initial grade of B - with the potential to bump it up to a B+ if the third and final season delivers a product as high-quality as the first.
GRADING
